The Dreamliner Battery Fire Was Far Worse Than Officials Let On

Firefighters and mechanics tried repeatedly to put out a battery
fire aboard a Boeing787 Dreamliner through smoke so thick
they couldn't see the battery, according to documents released
Thursday that portray the incident as more serious than
previously described.

The Jan. 7
fire atBoston's Logan International
Airportis under
investigation by the National Transportation Safety board, which
released laboratory analyses, interviews and other data it has
gathered so far. It still hasn't been able to pinpoint the
cause.

Federal Aviation
Administration officials are expected to make a decision in
the next few days on whether to approve a plan by Boeing to revamp the 787's
lithium ion batteries to prevent or contain future fires. Once
the plan is approved, Boeing hopes to swiftly test the
reconfigured batteries and get the planes back in the air.

Dreamliners worldwide have been grounded since a second battery
incident led to an emergency landing in Japan nine days after the Boston fire. The incidents have raised
questions about the safety of using lithium ion batteries, which
are more susceptible to igniting if they short-circuit or
overheat than other types of batteries. The episodes also have
called into question the FAA's process for certifying the safety
of new aircraft designs.

The Boston fire occurred aboard a Japan Airlines plane that
had just landed after an overseas flight and was parked. A flight
data recorder shows the battery used to start the auxiliary power
unit when the plane is on the ground failed six minutes after the
last of the 184 passengers walked off the plane, and one minute
after the pilots left. Moments later a cleaning crew discovered
smoke near a kitchen in the rear of the plane.

A mechanic investigating the source of the smoke in an
electronics bay found intense smoke and three-inch flames in two
places on the housing covering the battery. Attempts to put out
the flames with a dry chemical fire extinguisher were
unsuccessful.

The first firefighter to enter the plane reported seeing "a white
glow about the size of a softball" through the smoke using his
hand-held heat-imaging camera. He applied another type of fire
extinguishing agent, which somewhat reduced the glow. An airport
security camera video showed white smoke billowing from the
underside of the plane.

Another firefighter entering the electronics bay reported "no
visibility" because of the smoke and directed another burst from
a fire extinguisher at a hot spot, but the battery seemed to
rekindle. A fire captain applied the extinguisher again for about
five minutes, reducing the fire. But the battery was still
emitting heavy smoke and hissing loudly. Liquid was flowing down
its side. Lithium ion batteries contain a flammable electrolyte.

Firefighters finally decided to remove the battery from the
plane, but its "quick-disconnect knob" was melted, hampering the
process. Investigators later found little balls of melted and
cooled stainless steel, apparently from the cases of the
battery's eight cells. That type of steel melts at 2,700 degrees
Fahrenheit, one document noted. The bottom of the battery box was
bent from where firefighters pried it out.

In all, it took an hour and forty minutes to quell the fire.

The report said several kinds of battery failures can cause the
battery to smoke. Those include short circuits, recharging a
battery that has been allowed to discharge too far and charging
at cold temperatures. But unless something outside the battery
ignites it, only overcharging it will cause it to burn, according
to a report by NTSB engineer Mike Hauf,
citing a Boeing safety assessment.

That raises the question of whether there were different causes
for the fire in Boston and the Jan. 16 incident aboard an
All Nippon Airways plane,
where the battery smoldered but flames were not reported.

ANA confirmed this week that it replaced three circuit boards
located in 787 electronics bays after pilots received an error
message during flights in March, April and June of last year. One
of those circuit boards had a "slight discoloration," said ANA
spokeswoman Nao Gunji. Nothing wrong was found with the other
two, but they were replaced as a precaution, she said.

While Boeing conducted some battery testing itself
before the FAA approved the 787s for flight, key tests on the
battery and charging system were carried out by Thales, the French company that makes the
787's electrical system, and by GS Yuasa, the Japanese
company that makes the battery, the NTSB documents showed.

The tests included a fault tree analysis, which looks at what
happens as things successively go wrong with a battery. The tests
were reviewed by Boeing workers, as well as another
group of Boeing workers who are the FAA's authorized
representatives to make sure the batteries met FAA requirements.

Boeing classified the possibility of a battery fire as
"catastrophic" and built in extra safeguards to prevent
overcharging.

The 787 is Boeing's newest
and most technologically advanced plane. It is the world's first
airliner made mostly from lightweight composite materials. It
also relies on electronic systems rather than hydraulic or
mechanical systems to a greater degree than any other airliner.
And it is the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium ion
batteries, which are lighter, recharge faster and can hold more
energy than other types of batteries.

Boeing has billed the plane to its customers as 20 percent
more fuel efficient than other midsized airliners. That's a big
selling point, since fuel is the biggest expense for most
airlines.

Airlines have been forced to tear up their schedules while the
planes are out of service. United Airlines recently cut its
six 787s from its flying plans at least until June and postponed
its new Denver-to-Tokyo flights. United is the only U.S. carrier with 787s in its
fleet.

LOT Polish Airlines has
said the grounding of its two 787s is costing it $50,000 per day.
The airline has said it will ask Boeing for
compensation. Norwegian Air Shuttle,
which was due to receive 787s this year, said it will lease two
Airbus A340s along with flight
crews for its planned New York-to-Bangkok flights if it doesn't get its
787s on time. The airline is allowing customers on 787 flights to
change their flight date or get a refund, but "very few have
taken advantage of this offer," spokesman Laase Sandaker-Nielsen
said Thursday.

Boeing is still building 787s, but deliveries are halted. It
has not said how much the battery problems will cost.

UBS analyst
David Strauss estimated Boeing will burn some $6
billion in cash on the 787 this year — and that's even if it
delivers more than 60 of them. Every missed 787 delivery adds as
much as $120 million to the plane's cash burn this year, he
estimated in a note on Tuesday.